As a general attributive tag to describe a location (typically a cafe, restaurant or similar) which is themed. This should be regarded as the more standard usage as this has been discussed within the community and already had existing usage beforehand.

As a higher level descriptive tag for imported data in India. This usage is believed to come from the imported data source, and in standard OSM usage should be prefixed by the source, e.g. SOURCE:theme=*.

These two uses are described in more detail below.

Attributive Usage of Theme

This should be regarded as the standard way in which the tag is used.

Many types of facilities are themed to appeal to specific types of users or customers. A significant example is the international chain of restaurants, Hard Rock Cafe, which feature extensive use of rock memorabilia in the décor.

Note that many restaurants are likely be themed appropriate to their cuisine=*.